They are a No. 2 seed, and they are stuck, and they are saved in the first round by an odd mix of arms and nose.

This will happen in the future, too.

Gregg Popovich can't remember any of this in 2013. Sunday, he said the Spurs ended this regular season “worse than I can ever remember the entire time I've been here.”

He used the word “discombobulated,” and the following exchange actually took place. A reporter told him, coincidentally, that “discombobulated” had come up in a recent New York Times crossword puzzle. Did Popovich happen to know a word, six letters and ending in “y,” that means the same?

For those who only see the terse side of his interaction with the media: Popovich wrote a note before the game and sent it to the reporter with two suggestions.

Punchy and groggy.

Those words would have also described his team. The Spurs went 3-6 in April, with a final failure against Minnesota, which made Popovich say he had never seen anything like it.

But does a 104-68 loss to Dallas sound familiar?

Or losing three of the final four while easing an injured Tim Duncan back into the lineup?

Or losing to Minnesota, also in the finale, by 22?

All of that happened in April of 2005. And then came the playoff opener, with the Spurs going flat against Denver. The details are still in play today; the same Andre Miller who led the Nuggets past the Warriors on Saturday with 28 points had 31 against the Spurs in 2005.

Popovich reacted as he seemingly has for a decade. He tweaked Manu Ginobili's role, this time bringing him off the bench, creating playoff momentum through him.

In the second game against the Nuggets in 2005, Ginobili scored 17 points in 18 minutes in a rout. And in Denver — a far scarier place than 2013 Los Angeles — Ginobili did more. The Nuggets had won 20 of their previous 21 at home, and Ginobili reversed the series with 32 points.

“I saw the team wasn't being as aggressive as we were before,” he said then, “and I wanted to change that. That's my job now.”

And forever. Whether falling short or winning championships, Ginobili has always gone at the playoffs as if they were his. “I seek my moment,” he said Sunday, and he has usually found it.

It's his undeniable trait. Others get nervous, others feel uncomfortable; Ginobili rises. He did at the end of the third quarter with the Lakers closer than a fractured team should have been. Ginobili threw in eight points in the final minute and a half, and he ended up scoring as many points as any Spur in only 19 minutes.

“That's what he does,” D'Antoni said afterward, and he knows from experience. In 2005, after Ginobili tore through the No. 1 seed Suns on the way to a championship, D'Antoni wanted everyone to understand why.

“He's one of the best players on the planet,” D'Antoni said then.

When hamstrings are right, Ginobili can still contribute as he did Sunday. But this Ginobili has to be rationed. This Ginobili needs Tony Parker to resume his midseason status, and for Kawhi Leonard to continue growing, and for the rest not to be discombobulated.

This isn't 2005. Bryant works in 140 characters or less, and Nash requires epidurals, and Ginobili can't be asked to save the Spurs every night.